Join the Conversation

No to immigration executive order

FILE - In this June 30, 2014 file photo, President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, pauses while making a statement about immigration reform, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama, who has postponed until after Election Day his plan for executive actions that could shield millions of immigrants from deportation, is already on pace this year to deport the fewest number of immigrants since at least 2007, according to a new analysis of Homeland Security Department figures by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

President Obama is under intense pressure from immigrant groups to stop deporting so many undocumented people. And those groups are reacting angrily to his decision to put off sweeping executive action.

Obama's reasons for not pushing forward now are politically transparent: With control of the Senate up for grabs Nov. 4, he doesn't want to create a backlash against endangered Democratic candidates in conservative states.

But Obama should recognize that there is more to this issue than election-year politics. If he simply waits until after Election Day to go forward with his executive order — and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi hinted Thursday at action "by Thanksgiving or Christmas" — he will transform an important social policy initiative into a crass political play, which would be doubly unfortunate because he's right about the goal.

The nation desperately needs a comprehensive immigration law that would marry a path to legal status for undocumented workers with enhanced enforcement and reforms to the legal immigration system. Such a law passed the Senate last year with bipartisan support but has been bottled up in the House ever since by Republican leaders who refuse to put it to a vote because they know it might pass.

An executive order addressing only legalization of undocumented workers would be a vastly inferior product. It would leave important work undone. And it could undermine the very fragile support for a comprehensive plan.

Though the White House has not announced what would be in such an order, it would presumably involve a significant expansion of a previous order, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that Obama signed in 2012. That measure directs the Department of Homeland Security not to expend resources deporting people who came here illegally under the age of 16, who do not have a criminal record, and who are in school or in the military (or have graduated or been honorably discharged).

Deportations this fiscal year are already running 20 percent behind last year's levels. The new order would greatly expand the number of people subject to deferrals, perhaps to the millions who would qualify for legal status under the Senate bill.

That's too dramatic a policy change to be undertaken without Congress' involvement. What's more, granting undocumented workers a delay in deportations is a far cry from a law granting a path to permanent legal status.

A major rationale for granting legal status to undocumented people is to get them out of the shadows — to encourage them to interact with law enforcement and public health officials, and to give them the confidence to leave gray-market jobs and to start new businesses.

A temporary deferral that rides on who sits in the Oval Office, one that could be easily rolled back in 2017, would not give undocumented workers much confidence to do these things.

Though it might take some time before Congress musters the will to overhaul immigration, a plan to bypass the legislative process is not the answer.